Chelsea survived a late Brighton fightback to secure a 4-3 victory at Stamford Bridge and maintain Xabi Alonso’s winning start as manager.
The home side appeared to be cruising after racing into a three-goal lead during an impressive opening half-hour. Romeo Lavia opened the scoring after a mistake by Bart Verbruggen, before Pedro Neto doubled Chelsea’s advantage when he finished a cross from Morgan Rogers.
Former Brighton forward Joao Pedro then added a third, converting a pass from Jorrel Hato to put Chelsea firmly in control.
Brighton responded before half-time when Malick Yalcouye scored from close range, having earlier been denied by an excellent save from Emiliano Martinez.
The visitors continued to threaten after the interval and moved to within one goal in the 63rd minute when a Pascal Groß effort took a deflection off Joao Pedro and flew past Martinez. The goalkeeper was making his Chelsea debut following his £7.5m move from Aston Villa.
Diego Gomez went close for Brighton and Martinez made several important saves, while Olivier Boscagli was also denied after forcing the Chelsea goalkeeper into another strong stop.
Chelsea restored their two-goal advantage in spectacular fashion when Cole Palmer found the bottom-left corner with a superb finish in the 74th minute.
Brighton refused to give up and Pascal Groß headed home in the sixth minute of stoppage time, but the late goal was not enough to prevent Chelsea from claiming a second successive Premier League victory.
Chelsea’s win follows their 3-2 success against Fulham on the opening day and gives Alonso a positive platform at the start of his tenure. His side remain vulnerable defensively, however, and Brighton’s second-half pressure exposed areas that will need attention.
The match also brought an injury concern for Chelsea. Moises Caicedo, who came on in the 67th minute for his first appearance of the season, was forced off 14 minutes later and was replaced by Valentin Barco.
Chelsea were already without Enzo Fernandez, who was left out of the squad for a second consecutive Premier League match amid reported interest from Manchester City.
Chelsea made a fast start, with Lavia taking advantage of Verbruggen’s error to score in the fourth minute. Neto struck 10 minutes later, and Joao Pedro’s finish made it 3-0 after 32 minutes. Brighton’s Morgan Rogers then narrowly missed after being played in following a flowing move.
Joao Pedro had another opportunity early in the second half, but his shot was blocked. Cole Palmer also went close with a looping header that went over the bar before Brighton reduced the deficit through the unfortunate own goal.
Earlier in the day, Carlo Ancelotti and Thomas Tuchel were present at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea’s starting line-up was Emiliano Martinez, Pedro Neto, Maxence Lacroix, Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana, Joao Pedro, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, Romeo Lavia and Jorrel Hato. Their substitutes were Danny Welbeck, Reece James, Pep Chavarria, Moises Caicedo, Jamie Gittens, Valentin Barco, Josh Acheampong, Mike Penders and Estevao.
Brighton began with Bart Verbruggen, Pascal Groß, Lewis Dunk, Olivier Boscagli, Ferdi Kadıoglu, Maxim De Cuyper, Mats Wieffer, Diego Gomez, Luka Vuskovic, Charalampos Kostoulas and Malick Yalcouye. Their substitutes were Jason Steele, Pascal Struijk, Matt O’Riley, Costinha, Jaouen Hadjam, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Promise David, Ibrahim Osman and Nehemiah Oriola.
